The Benefits of Collaborating with Other Tradespeople

Collaborating on your trade projects is an extremely effective tool. Businesses of all shapes and sizes can benefit from joining forces with different tradesmen and women to finalise a job. Working together on-site can vastly improve your services and ultimately make your customers happy. 

Having a mix of trades with various forms of expertise can open different avenues to your business, help you grow, work on more significant projects and develop new skills that you can pass on to the next generation. Let's look at how you can benefit from working with other tradespeople. 

What are the current stumbling blocks in the trade industry?

It's been long known that there is competition in the trade industry. It can range from a quick bit of banter between plumbers and electricians to actively not collaborating on work projects. Our starting point isn't brilliant, but that leaves so much room for improvement. 

The main blocks include:

• Seeing other trades as competition
• Having an insulated view instead of the industry at large
• Focusing on money instead of overall growth

Sharing expertise and information is a major challenge due to the various siloes in the industry. What one trade knows may not be known to another. The main driver to breaking this mould has been social media and technology. The ability to grow an online network, share your work and ask for information and help has positively affected the trade industry. 

Generally, businesses find it difficult to help each other out due to the fact you would be helping a competitor. They often want to beat them on price and win the contract. However, in this day and age, there are so many advantages to sharing information and connecting the trades. Below we have a host of reasons why you should consider it. 

What are the main benefits of working together?

Fostering trade collaboration should be a priority from the day your business starts. Whether you are a lone wolf or employ a team, everyone should be on the same page and have an active mentality of working hard whilst forging connections with other trades. 

Handling areas of work that you are specifically trained to do and getting experts in other trades to help the project along just makes business sense. Even working with someone in the same trade makes sense because it fundamentally builds your network. 

To get a basic idea of how collaboration can help your trade business:

• Minimises waste in various areas: time, money and people power
• Will promote a better reputation for your business
• Leaves you with more satisfied customers
• Thus granting you more repeat business and referrals
• Assists with growing your trade business
• Helps to keep projects delivered on time and on budget

What does successful collaboration look like?

Building success from collaboration stems from several points that you can start today. A few simple yet possible alterations to how you communicate and work with other trades can help your team and your business. 

Consider focusing on these action points: 

Build Trust.

Trust is, for the most part, the groundwork for good joint efforts. Without it, tradespeople will generally focus on their singular tasks and objectives and learn to stay away from others. This can be detrimental to the industry and your own company's growth. 

Opening your business to new avenues from technology, trade events, and online forums can help you to build a trustworthy base of knowledgeable individuals. If you ever need assistance on a job, you can then call upon these people to help you finalise a job, thus building more trust and collaboration in the industry. 

Learn to be open and communicate with others.

There is an old saying, 'shy kids get no sweets,' which can be used when building collaboration in the trades. Every day there will come a moment when you wish someone could give you a hand. If you opened your businesses to form relationships with similar companies, you could call upon others for help and expertise when needed. Likewise, they could recommend you to their customers if they had too much work on. 

We have heard countless stories from tradespeople online who have been in this situation. Instead of frowning upon it, most (if not all) say how it positively impacts the trades and makes everyone that bit more welcoming. You just need to take the step of getting out there and meeting like-minded professionals. 

Allow yourself to disperse roles and responsibilities.

An open and inclusive industry will help to serve the interests of everyone. Keeping information under wraps instead of sharing learnings only holds the sector back and leads to stagnation. 

Being inclusive and allowing the duties on-site to be shared with other tradesmen and women makes the process smoother. Throughout history, people who lead with an iron fist rarely get far and soon succumb to their insulated world. 

If you fit a kitchen, why not have a qualified tiler come in to do their bit? If you are building an extension, have plasterers, window glaziers, and other trades come in to make the job weathertight. Focusing on what you do well and improving collaboration will alleviate your time and energy to other trades and open up new business possibilities.  

Why choose Rhino Trade Insurance?

Rhino Trade Insurance offers quality trade insurance for a variety of professionals. Whether you build houses, fit gas pipes, lay foundations, erect fences or more, we have cover to suit your needs. 

Our team has created fantastic protections that can save your business from theft, injury, damage and more. All are priced at a conveniently low cost. 

To get more of an idea of your next insurance policy price, call our wonderful team at 0116 243 7904 or head to the Rhino website, where you can explore our policy options and get a quote in just 60 seconds.